Did we really not have any shot at TC, Nene, or Dally?
Oh no! We had the shot and as a team with the most salary cap room, you always had the shot. The difference is that it is as clear as daylight that as an organization we
do not value athletic shotblockers. We never have and we never will as long as we have the same administration in place.
Add to that the owners that are obviously on the verge of bankruptcy and as such are treating the Kings as a business and not a hobby and you have a disaster on your hands. People say that paying Dalembert $10 million is over-paying but this 4 years @ $5million for a stubby undersized player that creates absolutely no offensive threat and is
not a great defender of true big man is a nice deal?!
We are really going down the path of Cavs here who for years signed up rubbish as "help for LeBron" and we know how all of that ended up. For the love of god I sincerely hope that we don't experience the same thing here because the decisions that we seem to be making since the lockout completed is heading right down that path. I could name at least half a dozen players that would be better gets but the problem for our owners is that they are payed better precisely because they are better players.
You only get what you pay for and we seem to love and embrace mediocrity. Well done Kings hierarchy for screwing this thing up. People will say there must be another plan. We seem to hear those excuses every time a questionable decision is made. We keep hanging on for that "something else in the work" and it never comes. There is no pro-activeness in our franchise, its all about mediocrity. We don't know what it takes to win. There is the "lets try this and see if it works" mentality. Unlike a team with a clear plan on what it takes and how to get there.
Lets take OKC as an example. They traded or drafted length, toughness and shot-blocking. They head hunted a tall defensive specialist for years and were prepared to blow their cap space on that type of player. First they traded for Chandler when teams were reluctant to taken on his contract. Sure the trade was rescinded due to a turf toe injury but the intent was clear to get that type of player. Then 12 months later they trade for the same type of player and offer him a contract extension when many teams were unclear what the new CBA will be like and what the salary cap structure will look like. We tend to trade for these types of players as a salary shedding exercise because they have an expiring contract.
You can mark my words, there won't be any other follow up moves. We won't re-sign Dalembert and we certainly won't sign Chandler or Jordan. We might take a look at Nene because we like non-rebounding bigs (Mikki Moore anyone?!) or undersized stubby bigs (Kenny Thomas, Sean May, and that fat scrub that played for Clippers that we signed a few years ago....and now Chuck Hayes). This front office is allergic to size and defense. If you are defensive specialist and you are big, this is not the place for you.
